1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle that can be charged with power supplied from an external power supply.
2. Related Art
Conventional vehicles are mainly gasoline vehicles driven using gasoline as a fuel, and a gasoline fueling operation is typically performed at a specific fueling station provided with fueling facilities. On the other hand, in the case of an electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle, or the like, which is charged by a supply of power received from an external power supply, charging can be performed in an increasing number of locations. In other words, a charging operation does not require use of a specific power feeding facility, and can be performed by receiving power supplied from a household power supply in a garage attached to a house or the like, for example. Accordingly, the charging operation may be performed in a location not provided with lighting facilities, in contrast to a fueling station or the like.
A charging connector for receiving the power supply includes various terminals for preventing electric shocks and the like. Therefore, when a power supply connector is coupled to the charging connector during the charging operation, the respective terminals must be connected accurately. Further, to prevent electric leakage caused by rainwater, a connection portion of the charging connector that is connected to the power supply connector is often disposed horizontally or oriented downward from horizontal. An operation to couple the power supply connector to the charging connector is therefore likely to be difficult when performed at night or in the dark.
In response to this problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-183860 discloses a vehicle having a configuration for illuminating a power receiving connector (the charging connector) using a light source during charging processing. In this vehicle, the light source (a light emitter) is lit when an outer lid covering the power receiving connector is opened, and extinguished when a power feeding connector (the power supply connector) is connected (coupled) to the power receiving connector. Further, Japanese Patent No. 4894611 discloses a vehicle having a configuration for indicating a position of a charging port (the charging connector) by lighting a light emitter upon reception of a predetermined identification signal, and extinguishing the light emitter when a charging connector (the power supply connector) is coupled to the charging port.
By illuminating the charging connector when the outer lid covering the charging connector is opened or the predetermined identification signal is received in this manner, the position of the charging connector can be identified at the start of the charging operation. Further, by extinguishing the light emitter when the charging connector and the power feeding connector are coupled, unnecessary power consumption can be suppressed.
In certain cases, however, an operator may believe that the charging connector and the power feeding connector are coupled when, in actuality, a certain terminal is not connected or a coupling angle is inappropriate such that the connectors are coupled incompletely. In such cases, the coupling is released in order to perform the coupling operation again. If, in such case, the light emitter is configured to be extinguished when the charging connector and the power feeding connector are coupled, the light emitter is extinguished even though charging processing is not performed due to the incomplete coupling, and as a result, it is difficult for the operator to check for a coupling misalignment or the like. Furthermore, when the coupling operation is attempted several times such that the light emitter is lit and extinguished repeatedly every time, an efficiency of the operation deteriorates. Hence, when the condition for extinguishing the light emitter is that the charging connector and the power feeding connector are coupled, a problem may occur during the charging operation.